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grassangelSeries: Doctor Who
Character/Pairing: 13/Rose, past 10/Rose, implied one-sided 13/Yaz, plus Ryan Sinclair
Genre: Gennish romance
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 949
Dedication: For Resa, who made my imagination run away with itself by tweeting about 13 meeting Rose.
Summary:
Dozens of rips in the fabric of time and space are blinking open and closed across Sheffield. Along with dinosaurs, they bring a familiar face to help the Thirteenth Doctor and her friends bring a stop to them.also available on AO3
or,
the Doctor gets to see Rose again and Rose meets Thirteen.
Rips.
Rifts.
Time breaks.
Whatever you called them, tears in the fabric of time and space were usually harmless and closed themselves without consequence. The ones that didn’t successfully do so, the Doctor took it upon themselves to deal with, either closing them or making sure they were carefully monitored.
Over two dozen popping up all over Sheffield, large enough for a lone valdosaurus to appear in Graham’s garden and making one of the Hallamshire Police patrol vehicles go missing? That was worth her attention, though the number of them wasn’t their most worrying aspect.
The app the Doctor has installed on Ryan’s phone chimes, the fourth time in nearly as many minutes. It dings a few seconds later, indicating that the break in time has closed.
Their frequency was what had called the Doctor back to Sheffield off-schedule. It also made fixing whatever was causing them a priority. Before the Doctor can address their cause though, she needs to do something about the symptoms, stem the rate at which the occurrences are happening and hopefully give her more time before they reach a critical mass.
For that she needs Yorkshire’s finest cup of tea and her friends that aren’t currently keeping a prehistoric dinosaur occupied and away from the front garden.
Ryan and Yaz are quietly talking amongst themselves from where they’re supposed to be keeping watch. Their chatter is distracting, drawing the Doctor away from where she’s trying to balance the fidget spinner in the time flow analog she’s in the middle of building. Finally she manages to concentrate enough to get it balanced on the salt shaker, before almost knocking it over again, startled by how close Yaz has gotten without her noticing.
“Doctor,” Yaz’s voice is pitched low, as if she’s trying not to attract any more attention than they already have by the Doctor building a slowly rotating device that’s a foot tall in the middle of a cafe, “There’s a woman who’s been staring at you for a few minutes. To your right, in the corner, navy blue blazer, blonde hair.”
The Doctor is already twisting around to look, ignoring Yaz’s insistent hiss not to do so.
She freezes.
It’s Rose.
Just like Yaz said, she’s staring at the Doctor. Her gaze is cautious, as if she’s uncertain who of the three sitting at their table is the person she’s looking for.
But she has the same bleached blonde hair the Doctor remembers, the same dark lashes and pouty lower lip. The same jawline that she can still remember the feel of below her fingers. Her face is a little older, the cheeks less round, fine lines around the eyes that the Doctor can’t recall being there the last time, but it’s obvious that far less time has passed for her than it has for the Doctor.
There’s a loud scrape of a chair elsewhere in the cafe and the Doctor startles and Ryan yelps as she knocks over the time flow analog. There’s a mad scramble as all three of them grab at the device to prevent it crashing to the table, their attention diverted for moment as they try to rescue it.
“Hello.”
Her voice is soft and still kind. The Doctor’s eyes flutter shut for a moment at sound as she turns to face Rose, still holding the part of the time flow analog made of two plastic knives stuck onto a fidget spinner in her hands.
“Hello-”
“Do you need help with something?”
Yaz’s rudely proactive inquiry drowns out the Doctor’s soft greeting. Any other time the Doctor would rebuke her, but she’s still looking at Rose - the way her weight has settled back, now confident that she has the right person.
“I was looking for a-” the slightest of pauses as Rose looks over Ryan and Yaz, the way they’re tense and ready to jump to the Doctor’s defence, before returning her gaze to the woman in front of her, “Doctor.”
There’s a silent conversation going on behind her, but the Doctor puts out a hand to stop Yaz before she decides to do anything. Both of her two newest friends settle back, obviously uncertain of whether this new person is a threat but still willing to listen to the Doctor’s judgement about her.
“You’re here.”
A single nod.
“The rips are worse than you think.”
“Right. That’s how you’re here in the first place.”
Rose doesn’t nod, but her serious expression is confirmation enough. The Doctor stands up abruptly, abandoning the fidget spinner on the table behind her. She doesn’t get further than that, the fact that Rose is in front of her stopping her in her tracks.
The Doctor wants to do so many things. Hug her. Kiss her. Apologise for leaving her. Say sorry for thinking that a poor copy could ever be a replacement for the real thing.
But the Doctor is frozen in place, stuck still by the fact she gets to see Rose once again.
They’re the same height now. The Doctor can look straight into those eyes now, see the streaks of gold in them clearly. The way they crinkle at the edges as a smile breaks across Rose’s face, diffusing the tension between them.
“I like the hair.” Rose reaches to tuck a loose strand of hair behind the Doctor’s ear, her hand then slipping down to find its way into hers.
The Doctor finds herself mirroring Rose’s smile with a radiant one of her own.
“Let’s go!”
As they begin to run out the door, the Doctor turning to gesture to Ryan and Yaz to follow, Rose’s grip is strong and warm around her hand. It feels like home.
